DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Chinese airlines to launch Urumqi-Istanbul route in July” plus 9 more

URUMQI, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Hainan Airlines will soon open a non-stop route linking Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Istanbul, Turkey, the airline said in a statement Thursday.
The new international route is expected to start service on July 11 with two round-trips every Tuesday and Sunday using Airbus A300-200, said China's fourth largest airline in terms of fleet size.
The flight departs at 9.30 p.m. local time from Urumqi and leaves from Istanbul at 1.30 a.m. the next day, said the company, adding that a single trip takes about seven hours.
The flight, the second intercontinental air service in Xinjiang, will promote the development of tourism, economy and culture between the two countries, said Turkish Ambassador to China Murat Salim Esenli.
Hainan Airlines began operating in 1993 in southern China's Hainan Province and now has nearly 500 domestic and international routes, covering more than 90 cities around the globe.
The company was named 2011 "Best Airline China" and "Staff Service Excellence China" in the annual Skytrax awards at the Paris Air Show Wednesday.

SHANGHAI, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Expo's China Pavilion will open to the public for three months again, the Expo Bureau announced on Thursday.
The pavilion's exhibition will reopen from July 12 to October 9, said a spokesman with the bureau.
The exhibition of the China Pavilion, also known as the "Crown of the East", was first extended from December 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011, after it was closed as the Shanghai Expo ended in October last year.
Like the first exhibition extension, tickets for the pavilion are still priced at 20 yuan (about 3.1 U.S. dollars) for adults and 15 yuan for students, disabled people, military servicemen and senior citizens. However, it will be open from Tuesday to Sunday, instead of seven days a week.   
During the first extension of exhibition, the pavilion received more than 5.7 million visitors. During the six-month Expo, it received more than 10 million visitors at home and abroad.

CHONGQING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A housing tax in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has helped to curb sales and prices for high-end housing after the tax took effect in late January, a local housing official said Thursday.
The tax has driven many potential buyers away from high-end residential projects and prompted developers to set more reasonable prices, said Zhang Dingyu, chief of the Chongqing Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management.
Visitor numbers for high-end housing projects dropped by 30 to 50 percent, while sales of high-end housing reached 256,600 square meters between Jan. 28 and Apr. 30, Zhang said.  
Sales of high-end housing accounted for 7.8 percent of the city's total commercial housing sales over the three months, down 3.1 percentage points from a year earlier, he said.
Meanwhile, the average price of taxable housing decreased by 10.48 percent to reach 13,140 yuan (2,030 U.S. dollars) per square meter.
Some property developers have begun to reduce the supply of larger houses by building smaller ones, as customers have chosen to buy smaller properties to avoid taxes, the official said.  
Authorities in Chongqing and Shanghai implemented a trial property tax on Jan. 28 to cool off red-hot housing markets. The tax followed other nationwide cooling measures, including a ban on mortgage loans for third homes and the creation of new housing price control targets.   
High-end housing refers to villas and new apartments that are priced at least two times higher than the average price for other new homes.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao left Beijing Friday morning to pay an official visit to Hungary, Britain and Germany from June 24 to 28, according to a news release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wen is visiting at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Orban Viktor, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During his stay in Britain, Wen will hold an annual meeting with Cameron, while in Germany he will co-chair the first China-Germany governmental consultation with Merkel.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese currency Renminbi, or the yuan,weakened 6 basis points to 6.4742 per U.S. dollar on Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading system.
In China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 0.5 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices before the opening of the market each business day.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- ChiNext Index opened at 812.31 points Friday, 2.13 points lower from the previous close on Thursday.
The index, officially launched on June 1, 2010, on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has a base value of 1,000 points.
The ChiNext Index, together with the Shenzhen Component Index and the Shenzhen SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) Board Index, makes up the three core indices reflecting the performance of China's stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's stock index futures opened mixed on Friday with the contract for settlement in July, the most actively traded, opening 7.6 points higher at 2,962.
The August contract opened 4.4 points lower at 2,961.6.
The contract for settlement in September opened 5.2 points higher at 2,980.6 points.
The contract for settlement in December opened at 3,034 points, up 8.8 points from the previous close.
The stock-index contracts, agreements to buy or sell the Hushen 300 Index at a present value on an agreed date, are designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from both gains and declines in the market.
The index futures were launched at the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from April 16, 2010. The CFFEX has set the base value for all the four contracts at 3,399 points.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's stock index futures opened mixed on Friday with the contract for settlement in July, the most actively traded, opening 7.6 points higher at 2,962.
The August contract opened 4.4 points lower at 2,961.6.
The contract for settlement in September opened 5.2 points higher at 2,980.6 points.
The contract for settlement in December opened at 3,034 points, up 8.8 points from the previous close.
The stock-index contracts, agreements to buy or sell the Hushen 300 Index at a present value on an agreed date, are designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from both gains and declines in the market.
The index futures were launched at the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from April 16, 2010. The CFFEX has set the base value for all the four contracts at 3,399 points.

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The number of Communist Party of China (CPC) members has exceeded 80 million, a senior CPC official said Friday.
The CPC had 80.269 million members by the end of last year, Wang Qinfeng, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at a press conference.
The CPC is the world's largest political party and will mark its 90th founding anniversary on July 1.

BEIJING, June 24  (Xinhua) -- Following are home news items to be covered or pursued by Xinhua Friday:

-- China Focus: China invests heavily in preventing oasis city from becoming desert
-- Interview: CPC values opinions from non-Communist parties
-- Taiwan braces for individual tourists from mainland
-- News updates about tropical storm destruction in south China
-- Press conference by the Organization Department of CPC Central Committee

Editor's Notes: China View from CNC World is a 30-minute daily English in-depth news program that brings global audience a panorama of what happens across China and face-to-face interviews over hot issues in China that interest people around the world.
Global viewers can tune into CNC English programs via Asia-Pacific Satellite-6 at 134 degrees east longitude, with parameters set as "6065MHz/3840MHz." The programs can also be viewed at www.cncworld.tv

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